updated 08:09 am EST, Wed January 22, 2014

Verizon has made yet another change to its plans, following its recent changes to the Edge upgrade program and adding another Share Everything tier. The carrier's World Messaging Unlimited plan costs $5 per line per month as an add-on to an existing plan, with customers able to send unlimited texts from the United States to other countries, as well as reducing the rates of calls to a number of locations.

Calls to Canada and Mexico will cost $0.01 per minute, according toEngadget, while calls to most of Central America and the Caribbean are priced at $0.05 per minute on top of the monthly fee. By comparison, the carrier's existing International Long Distance Value Plan at $3.99 per month lowers calls to $0.06 per minute for more than 100 countries around the world, and standard international dialing without an add-on starts from $0.20 per minute, depending on the country called.

Just as with the Edge upgrade plan changes, Verizon is describing World Messaging Unlimited as a promotional offer, though without a listed expiry date.

The whole messaging thing needs a total revamp. If I have unlimited text messaging in the US and my sister in the UK also has unlimited messaging why should I have to pay to send her a text? I can send her a tweet, email, iMessage on iPhone all for free. Why are phone companies still charging at all for messages except because they can?